Five Ways to Get Unfollowed on Twitter

It may not seem like it sometimes, but there are rules to Twitter. They’re largely unwritten, but most people who take Twitter seriously subscribe to them. If you are starting to get unfollowed and don’t know why, chances are you’re committing a Twitter infraction. There are a lot of reasons why you might get unfollowed on Twitter, but here are five of the more popular reasons:

1. You never tweet

Twitter is like a child in a lot of ways. Sure, it can be cranky and, despite your best efforts, unwilling to yield the results you’d like to see. But regardless of the results, you need to pay lots of attention to your Twitter account. I saw a stat recently that stated that 80 percent of all Twitter accounts were inactive. Don’t become a part of that 80 percent and you won’t get unfollowed. Devote a few minutes every couple of hours to tweet something. Being active is very important.

2. You tweet too much

Chances are, even your loved ones don’t want to hear from you 10 times per hour during the day. So why would complete strangers want to? Don’t abuse the “Tweet” button. If you clog up a follower’s Twitter stream, you’re likely to get the boot. Like I said, a couple of minutes every few hours is definitely the way to go.

3. You don’t follow back

In my first few days on Twitter, I discovered that if I wasn’t willing to follow someone back, they’d likely stop following me. Now, that’s not to say that you should follow everyone who you get a follow from, but it’s a good idea to at least look over the follower’s profile and see what he or she is all about. If they have a common interest with you, give them a follow. At least put them on a trial period. See what they offer for a few days and, if you don’t like what you see, you can always unfollow them.

4. You swear too much

Twitter is loaded with adults using adult language. That’s off-putting to a lot of folks. If you’re going to use profanity in your tweets, there better be a really, really good reason. If you’re using four-letter words as adjectives far too much, you’re going to get unfollowed. Clean up your tweets and you’ll keep more of a loyal following.

5. You don’t use common manners

I’m going to go ahead and assume your parents raised you to say “Thank you” every once in a while. You should probably employ the use of it on Twitter. If you don’t thank people for following you or retweeting you, they’re going to notice. A simple “Thank you,” along with the person’s Twitter name you’re thanking, can go a long way to creating a solid Twitter connection. No matter what, always be gracious.

Have you noticed other Twitter practices that will cause people to unfollow?

Jay Adams is a graduate student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University focusing on new and social media. Jay spent six years in the newspaper industry as a sports reporter before going back to school to pursue his passion of social media marketing. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JayAdams70.

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About The Author

Jay Adams is a graduate student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University focusing on new and social media. Jay spent six years in the newspaper industry as a sports reporter before going back to school to pursue his passion of social media marketing. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JayAdams70.